Two Republican senators are pushing legislation that would block Chinese nationals from receiving visas to study science and engineering fields in the United States.

"The Chinese Communist Party has long used American universities to conduct espionage on the United States," Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) said in a statement on his decision to seek new student visa restrictions.

The move comes as tensions mount between the United States and Beijing over the handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic, treatment of Hong Kong and reports of China's attempts to steal research done in the U.S.

"Beijing exploits student and research visas to steal science, technology, engineering and manufacturing secrets from U.S.

Under Cotton and Blackburn's bill, which they have dubbed the SECURE CAMPUS Act, Chinese nationals who want to study science and technology fields in the United States would not qualify for student visas they would need to do so.

"It's a scandal to me that we have trained so many of the Chinese Communist Party's brightest minds to go back to China to compete for our jobs, to take our business, and, ultimately, to steal our property and design weapons and other devices that can be used against the American people," he said during the April 26 interview

"I think we need to take a very hard look at the visas that we give to Chinese nationals to come to the United States to study, especially at the postgraduate level in advanced scientific and technological fields